From his early days
in medicine,
Dr. William Thornton
’ 52 has been interested in monitoring
medical processes
and body functions,
the focus of many
of his patents
and his role aboard
the space shuttle
Challenger flight
in 1983.

N.C.’s first astronautrocketing along On the GoIn 1967, when Dr. William EdgarThornton ’ 52 signed on as the firstastronaut from North Carolina, Apollo
11 had not yet landed on the moon,2001: A Space Odyssey was a year fromrelease and Star Wars was a long, longtime away (well, a decade anyway).

referred to as “Thornton’s Revenge” for its demands on thebody. In praise, astronaut Mary Cleaves says, “He’s a doctor,but let’s face it, he thinks like a physicist.”Here on Earth, Thornton last fall received the 2011Presidential Award from the N.C. Medical Society for his